For the third time Flatland Gallery invites artist F. Franciscus as its guest curator. In 1999 artist F. Franciscus created a show at the gallery that included traditional and new media disciplines. In 2005 he curated his second exhibition, Paint on Canvas. But persuaded by New York painter John Currin, F. Franciscus feels strongly to curate again in 2012 an exhibition that is all about painting. After Currin’s exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea NYC, Currin was - now more than ever - convinced that the excitement about the illusion that can be created with coloured pigment can never be completely replaced by photography, video cameras, holography "or whatever". “Painting”, so he said, “is fun and beautiful and we will never stop doing it!” For F. Franciscus these words are close to his heart; painting is everything! To celebrate this F. Franciscus invited three renowned artists to take part in the exhibition For the sake of Paint at Flatland Gallery: Gé -Karel van der Sterren, Roland Schimmel and Philip Akkerman. Work by F. Franciscus will also be part of the exhibition.

Gé-Karel van der Sterren (1969) creates figurative paintings (with all sorts of paint) that emanate toughness. In his art he combines baroque painting with ‘materiekunst’. His topics vary. From large topics as the materialistic post-industrial society with its laminated nature and pollution to more intimate subjects like man capable of loving and doing good. His work should not be seen as a direct comment on things, yet via his use of toxic colours and his sometimes-macabre humour his notions are expressed. Gé-Karel van der Sterren acquired in 1999 the Prix de Rome for painting and the Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst. In 2007 he received the Jeanne Bieruma Oosting Award. Between 1997 and 2006 Gallery Fons Welters (Amsterdam) hosted various solo exhibitions. His work was also exhibited at the Henry Urbach Gallery in New York (USA), The Nunnery gallery in London (GB) and at the Institut Neerlandais, Paris (France). Recently he had a solo exhibition Oopsie Daisy in the Haags Gemeente Museum, The Hague (2009) and NAT (WET) - Schilderijen en installaties 1995-2010 at the Gemeente Museum Helmond (2010).

Roland Schimmel (1954) first creates an outline for his work, which functions as a sort of choreography. He then sprays the paint in predetermined movements in thin layers on its carrier. Schimmel paints iridescent auras with jet black spots that cause afterimages. They attack the spectator who is powerless and can do nothing more than undergo these effects, both spiritually and physically. Schimmel is interested in the experience of the unpredictable in our perception. Group exhibitions include O Fortuna, Museum Het Valkhof/ CBKN, Nijmegen (2010), Deep Screen, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam (2008) and The First New Age Show, W 139, Amsterdam. One of his solo exhibitions was Blind Spot, in 2006 at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. In 2009 his work Sol Niger / Black Sun (a so-called dynamic wall painting) was part of Het Oog (The Eye), a space in the ‘open air’ of the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven.

Phillp Akkerman (1957) has one sole subject: his self. Over the years he has painted his self-portrait over and over again, documenting his current conditions at the time, allowing us to follow his interior and exterior transformations. Of all techniques, Akkerman embraces the old painterly technique. First he makes a sketch on tempered Masonite after which he executes a grisaille with tempera to complete the painting in full colour glaze. Akkerman is more likely a philosopher than a psychiatrist. He doesn’t paint the person but uses the image of his face to create highly diverse individualistic paintings. Ranging in style from hyperrealism to abstraction, his portraits display as much of him self as they do of art itself. Akkerman’s recent solo exhibitions include Akkermania in 2011 in the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Grey Paintings at Torch Gallery, Amsterdam (2011), Am I A Person?, BravinLee Programs, New York (2010) and I have become paint, Galerie Polaris, Paris (2010).

F. Franciscus (1959) is a storyteller. He sticks larger and smaller works of old masters in a new jacket, giving his colourful scenes his very own personal ideas and interpretation. Biblical stories have a dreamy nature and the atmosphere is magical, sometimes grim. Although his narrative realism might seem drenched with moralistic values, it is certainly not intended to be converted into the true faith, just as his name Franciscus is a ‘rebel’ name. With his contemporary performances he is out to charm and pull the viewer its leg. Represented by Flatland Gallery since the late 1980’s, his work has been exhibited at Flatland’s viewing space in Paris and at different international art fairs (Basel Scope art Fair, Show Off Art fair, Paris, Art Brussels and Art Paris. Large solo exhibitions were held at Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht (2003) and recently in the Gemeentemuseum Helmond (2010).

Also during the exhibition F. Franciscus has chosen to show four films, each offering an interesting look behind the scenes of these four most successful and prominent painters in the Netherlands. Laura Hermanides made the film on F. Franciscus especially for this show. Laura also signed for the film on Gé-Karel van der Sterren which she made in 2010 following the exhibition Tastzin in artists’ club Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. Kim Zeegers made the film on artist Roland Schimmel on the occasion of his exhibition at the Ketelfactory in Schiedam in 2009. The film about Philip Akkerman was made in honour of his show Akkermania held in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam in 2011 and was commissioned by RTV NH Interakt.